tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61744521513593065782018-03-05T08:03:37.504-08:00Deliciously AmbiguousJust trying to figure this life out.shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.comBlogger179125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-34937882763204101612015-02-14T10:56:00.002-08:002015-02-14T10:56:38.769-08:00The Love Project #14
*Note: I am failing at completing this project but that's good for me to know. Learn and grow.
#14: Loving Love
I love love
I like the rush of discovery
The slow, methodical process of getting to know something new
I like the excitement of infatuation
The burn of desire
Holding love in my hands and heart
Throwing my head back with pure joy
The tingle of anticipation.
I LOVE shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-58760115040066076682015-02-04T16:39:00.000-08:002015-02-04T16:39:13.979-08:00The Love Project #3: For the Love of Sleep
#3: For the Love of Sleep
I do it for the love of sleep
I run myself aground for the promise
Of eight unbroken hours
In my sanctuary
My bed
I sleep cocooned in the comforter
Of knowledge of days off and late sleep
I wake reluctant to rise
And quick to fall again into oblivion
I spent too many years forcing my eyes open
For tests and quizzes and facts
I can barely remember
Now nothing standsshanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-85570958634622317602015-02-03T11:08:00.002-08:002015-02-03T11:11:13.481-08:00The Love Project #2: A Love Letter to Ava
*I'm already behind a day because I keep overbooking myself on my days off but ho-hum not going to stop the train because of a hiccup.
#2: A Love Letter to Ava
How do you do it?
How do you capture us
In all our hues and shades
Coloring us in so we are full
Sometimes it feels like our story
Is one long length of hardship
Re shaping itself into teardrops
But you shift that tide
Until shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-42375453457243509812015-02-01T18:00:00.002-08:002015-02-01T18:08:05.167-08:00The Love Project
*Writer's Note: Full disclosure, I love this month. Generally, I always enjoy February. You've got Black History, unlimited chocolates, and I can wear red lipstick every day; but this year February feels even more special. Look at that month. All the days perfectly aligned and full. There's even a Friday the 13th in there for good measure. And because I'm so enamoured with this particular shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-10006936008494236882014-10-21T23:24:00.002-07:002014-10-21T23:24:56.168-07:00Time Stands Still
There’s
a scene in the documentary Time is
Illmatic where the frame is filled with photos taken for the cover of Nas’
seminal album Illmatic. They are snapshots
of an era. Queensbridge. New York. 1994. In many ways, those scenes will never
be captured again but they also haven’t changed. Set against the backdrop of
this groundbreaking album, these first time filmmakers, One9 and Erik Parker, shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-74239542129767269232014-09-16T13:29:00.000-07:002014-09-16T13:29:44.096-07:00On Spanking, Pathologizing White Violence and Using Common Sense
In the wake of the Adrian Peterson child abuse case, the Twitteratti and the Facebook "politicians" have begun an extensive debate around the idea of what's just a "whooping" and what exactly is child abuse. As a Black American, the idea of a whooping does not shock nor horrify me. I was on the receiving end of a few in my youth and I remember the horrified looks on my White classmates faces shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-70159674140423057802014-07-02T20:15:00.001-07:002014-07-02T20:25:25.820-07:00On Robin Thicke, White Male Privilege and the Black Female Body
In 12 Years a Slave there's a scene where Michael Fassbender's Master Epps corners Lupita Nyong'o's Patsey and desperately whispers and moans his desire for her as he slowly rapes her. The scene is unflinching and Steve McQueen shows us every moment of Patsey's torture and Epp's mental instability. He's caught between a heinous desire and shame for wanting this woman whom he ultimately views shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-18134768849663825932014-03-20T16:05:00.001-07:002014-03-20T16:06:29.946-07:00Lupita is EVERYTHING, But Lupita Can't Be Everything
I am a Lupita Nyong'o fangirl. Ever since awards season began and Lupita Nyong'o began gracing our screens every week, slaying us with amazing outfits, witty repartee with droll red carpet interviewers and sweetly sincere acceptance speeches, I was hooked. That is the power of a well rolled out Oscar campaign and a genuine superstar in the making. My official hashtag became #LupitaisEVERYTHINGshanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-86691113043403534602014-01-29T10:00:00.000-08:002014-01-29T10:06:28.584-08:00Habla Ifa, On NonViolence: Avonte Oquendo and Oshun's East River Speak - Part IV*originally posted by Jadele McPherson, a writer, performer and activist whom I'm proud to call my sister. Reposted with permission and slight edits by myself
Part IV: Oquendo in Da River Lord: Oshun, Mori Yeye O, Medicine, Mirror and Healer
Oshun is sweet yet she is terrifying, the rivers waters are often murky and hide exotic creatures altered by human toxic wastes and other mutations shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-51695624502481484122014-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:002014-01-29T10:06:40.479-08:00Habla Ifa, On NonViolence: Avonte Oquendo and Oshun's East River Speak - Part III
*originally posted by Jadele McPherson, a writer, performer and activist whom I'm proud to call my sister. Reposted with permission and slight edits by myself
Part III: The Rotten Apple of Elitism: A Divided America
Accountability. Genuine, means we can start with ourselves first, then them later. We know they ain't gonna report what happened, they aint gonna tell the truth, they don't shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-91039401410978526062014-01-27T10:00:00.000-08:002014-01-29T10:06:01.185-08:00Habla Ifa, On NonViolence: Avonte Oquendo and Oshun's East River Speak - Part II*originally posted by Jadele McPherson, a writer, performer and activist whom I'm proud to call my sister. Reposted with permission and slight edits by myself
Part II: Oct.4th Orunmila's Day: Oquendo's Run
Chills ran through me as I saw the footage, sure lil' Avonte was autistic, but those of us who work at the pulse of education and social justice, those of us who work with young shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-82269822613623532402014-01-23T10:51:00.000-08:002014-01-23T11:30:24.666-08:00Habla Ifa, On NonViolence: Avonte Oquendo and Oshun's East River Speak - Part I
*originally posted by Jadele McPherson, a writer, performer and activist whom I'm proud to call my sister. Reposted with permission and slight edits by myself
Part I: Moyuba. Invocation.
Chills come over me when I hear the news. They are pulling him out of the river, limb by limb. Indeed, it is Avonte Oquendo. Ibae bayen tonu. Despair and grief never rocked my 20 to 30 something peers soshanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-23396979429572932212014-01-19T18:27:00.001-08:002014-01-19T18:38:17.048-08:00Hipst(H)er
After seeing Her, I'm really impressed by Spike Jonze's ability to craft a screenplay. By the end of the film the idea of Joaquin Phoenix's Theodore falling in love with his operating system, Samantha (played by Scarlett Johannssen who is phenomenal in this vocal role) doesn't seem too far-fetched. In fact, Jonze's near future seems like the next step in our technological future. What was shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-82291343903979347822014-01-16T12:31:00.001-08:002014-01-16T12:34:44.274-08:003 Reasons We Should've Known How the Golden Globes Were Going to Go Down
Despite years of evidence to the contrary, people of color went into this year's Golden Globes with excitement and hopeful hearts. This is the year of Black film after all, with movies like 12 Years A Slave receiving critical accolades and even The Best Man Holiday managed to come in second only to Thor 2 in theaters even with its "race themes". So imagine the collective outrage when we shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-63678301511972456072013-12-24T08:04:00.001-08:002013-12-24T08:04:35.256-08:00The Lost Demographic: What My Black Mom is Watching on TV
When I entered the kitchen this morning, my mom was watching a rerun of Family Matters ... I know. Family Matters y'all. While I look on shows like this it's with nostalgia and a bit of wistfulness to my mom this is regular television viewing.
Now this part is for the TV execs, so listen up. I know my mom isn't part of your hallowed 18–49 demographic but somehow CBS is always number one shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-81784732933456933302013-10-11T12:39:00.001-07:002013-10-11T12:41:22.062-07:00Karma
Today on my way to work, I saw a blonde haired, blue-eyed woman standing legs parted, hands behind her back and bag strewn on the ground as she was being arrested by three police officers. And I walked by, I smiled.
Now, I completely own that my reaction was sick. No one should get joy from watching as someone is arrested. The way police officers demean and make of spectacle of arresting shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-39830730280787610352013-07-08T09:08:00.003-07:002013-07-08T09:08:40.810-07:00The Plight of the First Generation Eldest Sibling**A/N: That title sounded bleaker than I meant it to but ...
Shout-out to all the firsts.
The first to go to college,
the first to get a job,
the first to move out,
the first to really succeed.
The translators,
the navigators,
the form filler out-ters.
The ad-hoc financial aid counselors,
the conciliators,
and conflict mediators.
The big brothers and big sisters who areshanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-30073071569395222302012-11-08T22:53:00.000-08:002012-11-08T22:54:57.850-08:00Sumptuous but Unsubtle
Tonight I had the oppurtunity to see a free screening of Anna Karenina starring Keira Knightley in the title role. It was definitely intriguing and at times spell-binding, but (as is my way) there were certain aspects of the film I just could not get past. Full disclosure: I have never read Tolstoy's novel (though now I am inclined to), so I have no knowledge of the source material. The only shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-76624295425200875002012-05-14T19:19:00.001-07:002012-05-14T19:19:46.023-07:00Media Reformation
In the article, How Luther Went Viral, The Economist shows us that what we today view as the grand experiment of social media is actually nothing new. In fact, Martin Luther's Reformation couldn't have happened without the social media mechanisms we currently take for granted (take a second to imagine Martin Luther and the Pope engaged in Twitter beef). But while we acknowledge how today's shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-48430132378682926922012-05-09T13:51:00.002-07:002012-05-09T13:51:50.782-07:00The Need to JustifyWhat is it that compels us to justify our choices in life? On the internet it can become a blackhole of back and forth but in real life, it seems to all boil down to some intrinsic need to prove our worth; to have other people understand our intent. But at it's core, it's impossible and most of all, it's tiring. After reading, Dodai's incredibly personal article, When Motherhood Never Happens, I shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-62615486665658447392012-04-23T09:20:00.001-07:002012-04-23T09:20:20.257-07:00Why We Need More Screenwriters of Color
I'm what many would call a TV addict. I have DirecTv (with premium channels!), a Hulu queue that always hovering around 30 deep, a Netflix subscription and a Redbox account. I would say I consume about 40 hours of television a week not including the blogs and television news I consume, so it's probably the full-time job I'm not getting paid for.
That being said, I'm not an idle watcher. I shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-6679463030771415982012-01-17T16:49:00.000-08:002012-01-17T16:49:42.304-08:00I Need the GOP to Stop Caring About Me
I could wax rhapsodic about the paternalism of White liberalism. In many ways the party that boasts a high percentage of Black support can often be a place where actual Black people are treated like creatures too childlike and ignorant to help themselves. But despite the right's best attempts, they are not shifting this paradigm and helping Blacks get off the "liberal plantation" but rather shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-72537455326124162842012-01-17T08:49:00.000-08:002012-01-17T08:51:25.579-08:00Sisterhood ... Everlasting.
*Yesterday I began and finished Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares. It's the follow-up to her best-selling series Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and fast-forwards to these girls (now women) at the age of 29 as they deal with where their lives have taken them as well as *spoiler* the death of one of their sisters. If you, like myself, grow attached to fictional characters let's just sayshanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-49750504620727175912012-01-12T14:06:00.000-08:002012-01-12T14:07:53.157-08:00The Bro-ing of America
I know this isn't a new trend by any stretch of the imagination. Terms like bromance have long since entered our lexicon but I ask you: does everything that guys like to do have to be "bro"-ed out?
Because of our strictly defined gender roles, whenever men get interested in something that isn't deemed "masculine" we have to give it special name. It started out innocently enough with words likeshanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6174452151359306578.post-89615064481496334462011-12-06T14:40:00.001-08:002011-12-06T15:19:25.801-08:00Making Moves: 31 by the 31st
It's time for me to make some serious moves with my professional life. At work, I've become little more than a glorified baby-sitter who gets blamed when things aren't perfect (also known as: a convenient scapegoat).
So here's my pre-New Year's resolution:*
31 by the 31st. I'm going to try to apply to 31 jobs, fellowships, volunteer opportunities, basically any and everything that might shanna bowiehttps://plus.google.com/105990417641733577527noreply@blogger.com0